Top 10 Best Years In Metal Music History

Best years are years when several great bands released some of their best albums and songs.
The Top Ten
1 1986

Peace Sells, Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets, Somewhere in Time, Orgasmatron, Pleasure to Kill and The Ultimate Sin are some of the most important albums to me and all top 3 albums of the respective artists and they all came in this year. Great year for metal.

Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer wrote the three greatest thrash albums that year (Well, three greatest in the Big Four beside Rust in Peace). Not only that, but Iron Maiden wrote a pretty good album as well.

Raining Blood, Angel of Death - Slayer, Master of Puppets, Welcome Home, Orion, Battery - Metallica, Peace Sells - Megadeth, Pleasure to Kill - Kreator, Merciless Death, Black Prophecies - Dark Angel, and more.

2 1990 In 1990, the reunification of East and West Germany marked a historic moment in the aftermath of the Cold War. Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, introduced the concept of the World Wide Web, revolutionizing the way people access and share information. Nelson Mandela's release from prison... read more

A lot of huge albums came out in this year, such as Cowboys From Hell (Pantera), Painkiller (Judas Priest), Rust In Peace (Megadeth), and Seasons In The Abyss (Slayer).

Seasons In the Abyss. Enough said.

3 1988 The year 1988 witnessed the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to address global environmental challenges. The Winter Olympics were held in Calgary, Canada, showcasing world-class winter sports competition. NASA's space shuttle program continued with the launch of... read more

Operation mindcrime, justice, seventh son, south of heaven, leprosy, slowly we rot, state of euphoria, so far so good so what, the new order, need I say more?

4 1984 The year 1984 holds a prominent place in literature due to George Orwell's dystopian novel of the same name. Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh, a revolutionary personal computer with a graphical user interface. The Los Angeles Summer Olympics showcased sporting excellence and saw the emergence... read more

Maiden and Dio does it. Metallica and Manowar releases support!

Metallica and Iron Maiden made their best albums here.

1984! Metallica, Bathory, Running Wild, Slayer, Venom, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest (though DOTF is not their best work.) and lots more...

5 2004 2004 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2004th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations
6 1992
7 2002 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2002nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 2nd year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 3rd year of the 2000s decade.

Pretty good year with albums Arcturus's The Sham Mirrors and Agalloch's The Mantle

8 2001 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2001st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 1st year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2000s decade.

I consider this year the revival of Thrash Metal, since Thrash bands started to make good albums again, some even making albums among their best, this includes mainly, Slayer, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Testament, Death Angel reformed, and Megadeth also released album while it wasn't among their best it was a huge improvement over Risk,

Slipknots Iowa album was really good along with System of a Down's second album Toxicity and slayers God Hayes us all.

9 1983 1983 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1983rd year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations.

Slayer and Metallica made their debut albums this year, and Iron Maiden made one of their most famous albums. On top of that, there was Bark at the Moon (Ozzy Osbourne), Holy Diver (Dio) and Melissa (Mercyful Fate).

The year of good debut albums (And more stuff).

This is the year it really all began.

10 1998
The Contenders
11 1982 In 1982, the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina highlighted geopolitical tensions. The debut of the Commodore 64 computer marked a significant milestone in home computing. The Michael Jackson album "Thriller" achieved unprecedented success, becoming one of the best-selling albums... read more
12 2016 2016 (MMXVI) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2016th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 16th year of the 3rd millennium, the 16th year of the 21st century, and the 7th year of the 2010s decade.

2016 is a horrible year, without a doubt.

However, there's been a plethora of classical Thrash Metal bands hitting the Metal scene this year. Heck, Metallica's making a comeback after 8 years. Megadeth, Anthrax, Testament, Metal Church and Overkill are producing and have released new material to good chart success and critical reception. Maybe this could be the year where Thrash Metal may finally get its comeback :).

Despite the events that year, good albums came along and trash metal started to come back more. Metallica and Megadeth both made good albums, and there was also albums from Metal Church, Anthrax, Testament and Diamond Head.

13 2003 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2003rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 3rd year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 4th year of the 2000s decade.
14 1970 1970 saw the first celebration of Earth Day, raising awareness about environmental conservation and sustainability. The Beatles officially disbanded, marking the end of an era in music history. The Apollo 13 mission faced a crisis but ultimately returned safely to Earth, demonstrating NASA's expertise... read more

Black Sabbath and Deep Purple released the first albums with some proto-metal songs on them. Hard Lovin' Man by Deep Purple was the first speed metal song ever.

Black Sabbath released, the first metal album ever. (Vincebus Eruptum is proto-metal)

15 1989

1989 was very good for Technical Thrash Metal:
1) Annihilator - Alice in Hell (Alison Hell, Human Insecticide, Schizos Are Never Alone Parts I & II)
2) Coroner - No More Color (Die by My Hand, Tunnel of Pain, D.O.A.)
3) Dead Brain Cells aka D.B.C.- Universe (The Genesis Explosion, Estuary, Exit the Giants)
4) Watchtower - Control and Resistance (this album is a mix of progressive metal, thrash metal and jazz fusion).

Savage- Gutter Ballet a huge diamond and the corner stone of symphonic metal
Toxik - Think This the best tech thrash album
Blind Guardian -Follow the blind. their first really good LP
Kreator Extreme Aggresion. One of the best German Thrash albums
Rage Secrets in a Weird World.One of the great speed power cds

Gamma Ray formed

16 1995
17 1980

This website is flooded with Milennials. 1980 was THE BEST year for metal. Without these bands the majoriy of heavy metal music wouldn't even exist.

18 1991

Lack of Comprehension. Enough said.

19 1994
20 1987 The Next Generation" television series premiered, carrying on the legacy of the original franchise. The Montreal Protocol was adopted to address ozone layer depletion, showcasing international cooperation on environmental issues.
21 1993

1993 was good for Melodic Death Metal - 3 bands released pioneering albums with Melodic Death Metal songs: Carcass (Heartwork), Dark Tranquillity, In Flames

22 1996
23 2015 2015 (MMXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2015th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 15th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 6th year of the 2010s decade.

This should be higher. It was a great year for pretty much every subgenre.

Death Metal:
Napalm Death - Apex Predator - Easy Meat
Cattle Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction
Jungle Rot - Order Shall Prevail
Nile - What Should Not Be Unearthed

Black Metal:
Leviathan - Scar Sighted
Venom - From the Very Depths
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Marduk - Frontschwein
Enslaved - In Times

Thrash:
Slayer - Repentless
Viking - No Child Left Behind

Traditional Metal:
Ghost - Meliora
Iron Maiden - Book of Souls
Enforcer - From Beyond
Satan - Atom by Atom
The Sword - High Country
Enforcer - From Beyond

Stoner/Sludge:
Baroness - Purple
The Sword - High Country
High on Fire - Luminiferous

Prog:
Tesseract - Polaris
Enslaved - In Times
Between the Buried and Me - Coma Ecliptic
Symphony X - Underworld

And much more

24 2006 2006 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2006th year based on the Common Era/Anno Domini designations. It is the 6th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 7th year of the 2000s decade.

My vote goes to 2006. Why? Well, just have a look at some of the albums we got that year:

The Ruins of Beverast - Rain upon the Impure
Daylight Dies - Dismantling Devotion
Saturnus - Veronika Decides to Die
Insomnium - Above the Weeping World
Amon Amarth - With Oden on Our Side
Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain

25 2019 2019 (MMXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2019th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 19th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 10th and last year of the 2010s decade.
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